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"...this is the most articulate and accurate piece written about the club for years!" - Tales from the Front, http://www.otib.co.uk/

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

The Best 25 Players in the Championship; One Year On (Part 4)

The Top 25 players in the Championship were named a year ago on The Seventy Two, a culmination of personal views and ultimately a fan's vote. Fourteen have already been reviewed this week and this fourth update takes a cursory glance at a further six players, four of whom are now on the books of Premier League clubs.

Firstly today, Joe Harrison provides an angle on one of the few from the list to have commanded a significant transfer fee since appearing in the vote.

A year on, it comes as no surprise that Jay Rodriguez would
be ineligible for the same list this year, as he has made the step up to the
Premier League. Unfortunately for Burnley, it has not been with them,
Southampton signing the Lancastrian for a fee believed to be around £7m
following his 21 goals for the Clarets last season. It would be an
understatement to say that the Saints were keen to get their man – not only did
they spend £7m on a player entering the final year of his contract; they had
had bids for him rejected in both of the previous two transfer windows, too.

The 23 year old is not guaranteed a place in the Saints’
first team, with Rickie Lambert often preferred as the focal point of the
attack, but he has started his fair share of games, making over 20 Premier
League appearances. He is also off the mark in the league, including a goal at
Old Trafford. As with the rest of the Southampton squad, it remains to be seen
what impact the managerial changes at St Mary’s will have on Rodriguez, but the
evidence of the season so far suggests he will form an important part of a Saints
team hoping to consolidate their Premier League status.

John Verrall from Peterborough United blog 'Standing on the Glebe' was one of the original contributors to the Best 25 list, and takes a look at the next two players on today's review.

Jacob Butterfield’s year has been a frustrating one. After a
really impressive start to the 2011/2012 campaign with Barnsley, he became a
key figure for The Tykes and was even put in as captain at the tender age of
21.

As such attention of higher placed clubs was drawn and
Norwich City were the ones who took a chance on Butterfield, bringing him to
Carrow Road in the summer.

His chances in East Anglia have been limited though and he
is yet to make his Norwich City debut with the club choosing to loan him out to
Bolton and Crystal Palace, where he is currently playing now.

However, Butterfield still has youth on his side and, if he
can continue to impress at Championship level, regaining the form that saw him
gain a move to the Premier League, he may well still have a bright future at
Norwich City.

The combative West Ham United central midfielder has gone
from strength to strength over the past few years.

Although the Hammers relegation to the Championship was very
disappointing for the supporters of the club, it allowed Noble to come to the
fore as he raised his game and became a key member of the squad which
eventually got them promoted.

Now a regular in their Premier League, Noble has cast any
doubts about his ability at the top level aside and has put in a series of
notable appearances in this season – scoring four times in the process.

Two hot-shot strikers are up next, and firstly I review a prolific Championship goal-getter before moving onto a player desperate for an injury-free season to prove his true value.

Billy Sharp: Top 25 review from 2011

Club in Dec 2011: Doncaster Rovers

Club now:

Southampton (Nottingham Forest on loan)

Progress made? Promotion to the Premier League

One of those to
earn a move shortly after the list was
published, Sharp made a crucial contribution to new club Southampton's surge to
promotion, albeit without truly establishing himself as first choice. He
returned a strike rate as impressive as ever with nine goals in 20 appearances,
even more significant when it's considered that nearly half of those
appearances came from the bench.

However despite
those goals, once promotion was assured the Saints moved quickly to secure
Burnley's Jay Rodriguez (his year is analysed above) and following a couple of
appearances in the early Premier League games, Sharp once again found himself
surplus to requirements and scanning the Championship for another option.

Nottingham Forest,
with ambitions aplenty following their takeover and Sharp's former Doncaster
manager Sean O'Driscoll at the helm seemed a perfect opportunity, and following
seven games without a goal, a purple patch ensued, with Sharp's eight goals in
14 matches helping O'Driscoll's side to the brink of the playoff positions.

Sharp has continued to score goals since O’Driscoll’s abrupt and surprising departure, but ultimately perhaps seems destined to be one of those players never quite considered
good enough for the top flight, despite how valuable an asset he can be in the
Championship.

An
acrimonious month at Bristol City followed by a deadline day transfer to West
Ham was to await wantaway striker Maynard following the publication of the
original list, and it's not been all sweetness and light since. The
ex-Crewe Alexandra forward struggled to make an impact at the Boleyn, and although a pair
of goals played their part in pushing the Hammers over the finish line, their
other Championship deadline day signing, Ricardo Vaz Te (not a name on our
list incidentally), became the preferred option.

A summer move back West, a little further along the M4 to ambitious Cardiff
City, seemed to offer Maynard another chance at playing in a successful
Championship campaign. However, whilst the club's campaign has thundered on
relentlessly, Maynard's own participation has been minimal. Three, albeit
impressive, games into his career for the Welsh side, an all-too-familiar
damaged knee ligament prognosis has left this talented marksman sitting on the
treatment table whilst his new colleagues lead him into the promised land.
Time will soon tell if Maynard can take his chance in the top flight, assuming
Cardiff don't demonstrate an exaggerated version of their annual springtime
collapse, and also on the proviso that his unfortunate proneness to long term knee injuries doesn't become career threatening.And finally for this penultimate part of the review, John Verrall reviews another of London Road's shining lights.

At the age of 33 Grant McCann has found himself beginning to
take a back-seat at Peterborough United, with his first-team appearances being
limited this season. His passing range still remains, but his pace and stamina
– two areas of his game which have never been his major assets – have depleted even
further and Darren Ferguson has used him much more sparingly this campaign.

That said, a talented player he still remains. After
starting the season in the transfer-list, the Northern Irish international
forced his way back into Ferguson’s first-team plans after a promising start to
the season and, although his contract is due to expire at the end of this
campaign, there has been slight hints that a potential contract extension may
happen in recent times. Indeed, McCann has made no secret of his desire to stay
at Posh.

Ferguson has always stated that he feels McCann
plays best when he is deployed in a midfield three, but he is now being used in
central midfield duo at London Road and has still shown he has the fitness and
physical levels to continue playing Championship football, with a late winner
against Leicester City in his most recent game.

The Exiled Robin

Born and raised in North Somerset, I started supporting City in the 1982 season that saw us 92nd in the league and almost going bust.
Enjoyed some good times since, particularly under Big Joe Jordan, John Ward and Danny Wilson. Brian Tinnion's goal to win an F.A.Cup tie at Anfield in 1994 is an obvious highlight, along with winning a cup final at Wembley in the Freight Rover Trophy in 1986.
But two successive seasons under Gary Johnson left all that in the shade and, with a little more luck, we might well have been playing with the big boys in the Monte Carlo of football.
I always back the manager and the players whatever the form - they're not going to win games without our support.
Now living in South Wales due to work I don't get to as many games as I'd like to.
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